Under the leadership of Galym Mutanov, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, as the flagship of Kazakhsta's higher education, has developed a model of a new generation university-University 4.0. Implementing this model based on the concept of "al-Farabi University Smart City", the core of which is the ideas of the great thinker al-Farabi, the university has achieved a harmonious symbiosis in the development of high-tech and spiritual and moral platforms. Leading the Global Hub of the UN Academic Impact Program for Sustainable Development for four consecutive terms, KazNU presented the "University 4.0" model at the UN Headquarters in New York, where it was recommended for wide dissemination at the international level.
Thanks to a comprehensive structural modernization based on the cluster approach and the introduction of a results-based management system, the staff of KazNU has achieved a rapid growth in indicators in all areas of activity and has achieved a fundamentally new quality of university content. So, over the past 10 years, the number of university students has increased 2-fold, and the number of foreign students has increased 20-fold. The share of accredited educational programs has been increased from 6.5% to 95%. The number of joint and double-degree programs with leading foreign universities has increased 12-fold. The number of specialties that have opened English departments at all levels of education has increased by 2.5 times, the share of which is now 70 percent of the total number of specialties. The "Digital University" model implemented in KazNU was highly appreciated by Microsoft, which made a film about the best practices of the university and posted it on its website. The university was the first in the country to launch massive open online courses on the platform moocs.kz The leading universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Silk Road University Alliance, which unites more than 150 universities of the EurAsEC and CIS countries, participate in the development of this program. Today, KazNU is the only university in Central Asia that simultaneously operates centers of high-tech companies within a single educational cluster: Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Kopisa Minolta, Fujitsu, Samsung, Alcatel, Microsoft, Kaspersky Lab, Huawei and others.
Implementing a course on the integration of science, education and innovative production, KazNU has approached the level of world-famous research universities. Over 10 years, the total amount of R & D funding has increased 6-fold. The University is the first and only university in Kazakhstan that has reached the mark of 1000 publications in the Scopus rating publications per year. Every fifth article published by Kazakh authors in the journals included in the Scopus database belongs to scientists of the al-Farabi Kazakh National University. KazNU became the first national university to open a postdoctoral program. In order to commercialize the results of R & D, start-up and spin-off companies have been created, the number of which has increased by 10 times compared to 2010. Among the few universities in the post-Soviet space, KazNU launched the first Kazakh nanosatellites-Al-Farabi-1 and Al-Farabi-2.
At the initiative of Academician Galym Mutanov, a large-scale project was launched to create the "Scientific and Technological Valley of Al-Farabi", focused on the commercialization of scientific developments and the creation of high-tech and competitive industries. Foreign investors have been involved in the project, with which agreements worth 1 billion US dollars have been signed.
Within the framework of the "University 4.0" model, the university's activities were aimed not only at training competitive personnel, but also at the spiritual formation of young people as citizens of the country and the world. Thanks to the breakthrough social projects implemented on the basis of the spiritual and moral platform of the university, the share of students involved in the work of student self-government bodies, club and volunteer activities has increased by 2 times. The anti-corruption scientific and educational cluster created in KazNU has become a think tank of Kazakhstan for the formation of anti-corruption consciousness and culture of young people. Thanks to the active development of sports and physical culture, the university is the undisputed leader of student sports. Within the framework of the "Rukhani Zhangyru" program, the international project "Formation of citizens of a virtuous society" is being implemented jointly with the UN Alliance of Civilizations. The mission of modern Universities". KazNU together with leading foreign universities has created Al-Farabi centers in 12 countries of the world, where the Kazakh language and culture of the Kazakh people are widely studied and work is underway to create branches of the university on their basis.
Implementing the social package, the university staff has attracted almost 1.5 billion tenge for social scholarships for talented students over 10 years. Thanks to the creation of the unique Keremet Student Service Center, which has no analogues in the world, KazNU students enjoy all the necessary services, including medical services, without leaving the campus. The volume of the campus infrastructure area increased by 1.5 times, most of which is accounted for by social facilities built on the principles of public-private partnership. Among them are: The House of Young Scientists with 500 seats, a new library, DSP "Keremet", a swimming pool and others. Construction of the largest modern and comfortable hostel in Kazakhstan has begun.
The introduction of two platforms at the same time – innovative-technological and spiritual-moral-gave a synergistic result, as can be seen from the promotion of KazNU in the international QS rating. Moving forward by almost 500 positions and taking the 165th place in 2020, it became the first Kazakh university to break into the top 200 best universities in the world. Being the leader of the Turkic and Islamic world, KazNU received a high rating of "AA+" and became one of the leading European universities according to the results of the research of the authoritative European rating "Academic Ranking of World Universities-European Standard". KazNU is among the top 200 most environmentally friendly universities in the global ranking of UI Green Metric Ranking of World Universities, in the top 50 most technologically advanced universities in the world. International experts today highly appreciate the achievements of KazNU and call its rapid progress in the world rankings" phenomenal".
As the members of the Academic Council unanimously noted, this was made possible thanks to the outstanding leadership qualities, strategic vision of Galym Mutanov, corporate spirit and team cohesion. It is natural that KazNU entered the top 10 leading universities in the prestigious ranking of THE Awards Asia in the category "Outstanding Leadership and Management Team" (Outstanding Leadership and Management Team). And the head of the university was awarded the prestigious international award Amity Excellence Awards in the field of science, management and entrepreneurship at the global level.
For his outstanding contribution to the development of science and education, Galym Mutanov was awarded foreign state awards, such as: The title of Knight of the Order of the Academic Palm Branch (France), the Cross of the Order of Merit (Poland), the Order of Merit (Italy), the Order of the CIS (Moscow), the Gold Medal of the President of the Republic of Korea, etc. For his scientific achievements, Professor Mutanov was awarded the Gold Medal of the ISESCO Prize in Mathematics (Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Culture), the Gold Medal of M. Curie (Poland), named gold medal of the International Academy of Higher Education "For Outstanding Achievements in the field of science and education" , etc.
Merits of Professor of the Author in the field of science and education, noted the high national awards such as the order of "Barys" of III degree and order "Parasat" of RK, the title "Honored worker of science and technology of Kazakhstan", the best inventor of Kazakhstan.
The staff of KazNU.al-Farabi who achieved international competitiveness and recognition under the guidance of an outstanding senior Executive and top scientist, is proud of its achievements, are sincerely grateful to academician Galym Mutanov for her fruitful work and wishes them good health, prosperity, happiness and new achievements for the benefit of development of education and science of the country!
